


Anything Can Happen in the Woods

by DisneySorceress



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Perc'ahlia, also my title is so original i know, but it fits, have a few more ideas, i'm weak for getting in their heads, probably rated higher than it needs to be, will probably add as i go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 13:49:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8374492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisneySorceress/pseuds/DisneySorceress
Summary: SPOILERS for Episode 72
Vex attempts to conquer her demons and finally tell Percy how she feels. THE scene, from Vex's perspective.





	

In the end, Vex’ahlia loses her nerve.

She studies Percy in the silence that stretches between them. It has been five days since Ripley, and he is only just starting to look like himself again. There is still the lingering tiredness around his eyes—she hopes they’ll have at least one more day to rest before they are subjected to the wrath of Thordak—but he is alive, as he should be. As he shall stay. As long as she has breath in her lungs, she will keep him so.

Vax is right, she thinks. There are no guarantees. She cannot delude herself into thinking that there will be time for such things after the dragons are dealt with. If she is going to tell Percy, now is the time.

And the setting couldn’t be more perfect for it, either. They are alone in a snow-frosted forest, talking of forgiveness and healing. In showing him the word carved into Fenthras, she has given him a glimpse into her soul that no one has ever been privy to, not even Vax. In begging him to forgive himself, she has conveyed the tiniest part of how much she cares. It should come naturally after all this, she thinks. But she has lost him once already, and the memory of his still form and lifeless blue eyes still terrifies her, even as he stands, breathing, in front of her. To lose him again, even in such a trivial way, would be more than she could stand.

It is this that shakes what little is left of her resolve. She fears she would lose him, because he has given no sign that he cares for her the way she does him, not really. Perhaps he holds her in some friendly regard, but she doubts he would welcome an unsolicited, unrequited profession of love. In fact, were she to try, she is reasonably certain he would push her away, and that is something she knows her heart would not be able to bear.

Maybe it is cowardice, but she will not lose him again. She cannot. She can box those feelings up in the darkest corner of her heart if it means she is able to stay by his side. She can live with simply being near. As long as she is close enough to protect him, nothing else matters.

So Vex’ahlia drops her gaze, her heart sinking but her resolve firm. “That’s all,” she tells him, staring determinedly at the snow at her feet, reaching up to grip her braid with both hands. That will be the end of it. She’s said her piece, he’s said his, and now they can return to the world of Vox Machina and dragons and boundaries that are well defined.

But Percy doesn’t leave. She hears the snow crunching under his boots, his footsteps closing the distance between them until he is standing directly in front of her. He is much closer than he has ever been—closer, she thinks, than she has ever seen him choose to be to anyone. He brings one warm hand to her chin, gently lifting her face upwards so she can meet his gaze again.

Vex is struck once again by how impossibly tall he is—more so, now that he is standing so close. His expression is unfamiliar in its openness; he is looking at her with such fierce and unguarded devotion that her knees go weak. If she weren’t already leaning against a tree, she thinks the weight of that gaze would make her collapse.

For one endless moment, Vex stares up at Percy with wide eyes and a racing heart. Then, still holding her chin in his hand, Percy leans down and presses a gentle kiss to her lips. In all her years of experience, Vex cannot remember ever being kissed quite like this. It’s chaste, and they are barely touching at all—just his hand cupping her chin and his mouth on hers—but she can feel the fire burning just below the surface. This is not the tentative spark of something that has just begun to burn, nor the sudden, intense flame of one of Scanlan’s fireballs, bursting to life in an instant and dying just as quickly. This is the steady heat of a fire that has long been burning. Percy kisses her with an aching tenderness, like she is something infinitely precious and beautiful.

Percy kisses her, she realizes, like a man in love.

Vex has scarcely understood this before he is gone, stepping away from her entirely and leaving her wanting. She wants to protest but finds that she doesn’t have the words. Her thoughts are an incoherent, jumbled mess of emotion for the dizzying revelation he has given her. With one gentle kiss, Percy has ruined her.

He hasn’t gone far, just a few steps away. Again she holds his gaze, shocked silent and aching. But Percy is perhaps the most private man she has ever known, and with the rest of their friends close enough to hear, she knows that this is neither the time nor place for this.

But there are words that need to be said, and he knows it as well as she. “We’ll talk later,” he promises quietly, his voice rough with the emotion of the moment, and yet still unbelievably tender. Vex can do no more than nod once, at which Percy—after one more long, lingering glance—turns and walks away to join back up with the rest of Vox Machina.

He takes the charged atmosphere with him. Vex finds herself sliding down the tree as her legs finally give out, collapsing in a heap between its roots. The aching desire Percy left her with is slowly morphing into something else, a euphoria that fills her so entirely she feels like she might burst.

It is some time before she is able to move, but the thought of a smirking Vax finding her cross-legged under the tree and radiant with happiness eventually spurs her to her feet. By the time Vex rejoins the rest of her family, she is mostly herself again. There are a few comments about her sudden good mood, and a few side-long glances from her brother, but Vex shrugs it all off easily, taking Percy’s lead and going about her business as though nothing has changed.

She knows, deep down, that _everything_ has changed.

It felt like a dream, their brief moment in the woods. Last night Vax had hinted that Percy would likely never be the one to act on what he felt, and Vex had been more than certain he was right. But Percival de Rolo is an obstinate man, and whether he was aware of it or not, he has done exactly as Vax had suggested he would never do.

He has surprised her.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't really know what I'm doing. Episode 72 happened and suddenly I was overwhelmed with all these ideas and feelings and this is the result! I'm just going to leave this here...
> 
> Hope you enjoyed. :)


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